I now have business cards?

First week of internship: done and done-r. I'm absolutely amazed at how much I love this internship. Coming in to work everyday is like always having your favorite songs play on the radio while you drive. It is familiar and comfortable while also being fun and exciting. There is also just a lot of singing going on around the office, which is an obvious plus.


So here are my responses to those teasers that I promised you!


1. When Kiki Met Fran

Fran Kao (last name pronounced "gow." it's like cow but with a "g") is the name of my boss. When I was applying for the internship in March I had to do a phone interview with her and immediatly knew that we would be like Thelma and Louise, but without the cliff. Our 25 min interview lasted at least 45 mins with all of our laughing, dishing, name dropping, and theatre ramblings. We had been in contact over e-mail all summer and for some reason I was really nervous to meet her. I wasn't supposed to get to work on Monday until 10. I was outside of the theatre at 9:30. Then I bought a water and it was 9:32. Then I paced around the main door and probably had people inside the theatre watching me do a mini freak out. At 9:45 I couldn't wait any more. I walked in and headed straight to where my desk was. Fran saw me and gave me the biggest hug ever. She gushed that she was hoping I'd come in early and was finding it hard to wait until 10. "I'm so glad that you're finally here." I'm already loved at this place. Fran is just amazing. She has a great sense of humor, is one of the most genuinly kind and outgoing people I've ever met, and we just really click. I like her so much I'd even do her dry cleaning. But hopefully she won't ask me to.

2. I'm not above Kurtzy-ing

When I was interviewing last March, I also had to talk with Jessica Kurtz. She was the Arts Management intern last year and is now a staff member for the Rep. She sits with Fran and I in the Audience Development Pod of cubicles and is pretty awesome. She's really great at filling me in on all of the people and events that I need to know about. She'll explain why something is funny in a meeting. And best of all, she'll give me the dirt on everything going on in the Theatre. She is fabulous. We've become really fast friends. She's already taken me out to lunch, and one night we went and got dinner with a friend of hers and saw Shrek: The Musical (more on that later). We're talking about campaigning for Obama together and seeing as many free shows as possible. She's a complete "gets it" and it's nice to have someone closer to my age to be around everyday.

3. HOLD MY CALLS I'M IN A MEETING

On my first day of work, Fran sat me down with a calendar and started giving me my schedule until mid-October. I have, ahem, meetings to attend. I'm that important. Typically once a day I'll have a meeting with the education dept or the audience development dept or the whole company will get together and crack jokes for 3 hours. It's awesome. Most of the time I have no idea what is going on. Names and acronyms are flying by my head and I usually make a list so that I can ask Jessica what they all mean later. But I'm trying to take detailed notes and pretend to have something to contribute. Like when I was in a meeting with our volunteer organization I noticed that they were all at least 65 and wrote, "The color pallete is very muted with this group. When dressing for this meeting in the future, think Easter." Professional.

4. ...and how is this different than being an RA again?

I've come to the kind of crazy realization that I'm a bit more prepared for this job than I realized. My RA training will actually come in quite handy. For instance, Fran asked me to print copies of all of the intern's pictures and to glue them to a huge map so that people could get to know their names and titles. That sounds eerily like a bulletin board. Another time we were outlining the events that we're throwing and talking about all of the numerous ways that we want people to hear about it and how many we want to attend. Hold the phone, is this a program we're talking about? If she mentions anything about "outcomes" I'm crying foul. All I need is Kate Fitzgerald actually running this theatre too with her neon green fleeces and crew-cut-of-love. But luckily for me I actually do like this kind of stuff. On day one she had me making buttons for a huge kick off event that night. Little did she know that Molly, Katie and I made buttons by the mass in high school to promote our plays. But don't worry, I wasn't making buttons for long. Eventually I trained Jarred, the recently released from prison guy who was looking for easy community service and decided that pounding out buttons was his new license plate making. I wish I was kidding.

5. Shrek: The Musical ????

Like I said, I'm pretty important. So of course I was invited to go for FREE to the premeire of Shrek: The Muscial. There were photographers everywhere. A green carpet was laid out in front of the doors. And who knows how many almost famous people I saw. It was a really fun night. I don't want to ruin it for people that want to see the show in the future, but here are my 2 cents:

Kiki's Critique Corner

I think that this play is going to be a major success. It already has the recipe by milking one of the biggest cartoon movies of all time and packing it with A list talent including: Sutton Foster, John Tartaglia, and Christopher Sieber. Not to mention Pulitzer Prize winning author David Lindsay-Abaire, and my current obsession, wrote the book and lyrics. The play did everything it needed to. It delivered the scenes that are everyone's favorites from the movie and did the dialogue verbatum. It tapped into the areas that were brushed over in the movie to have them explode in different directions on the stage. It didn't recycle all of the old material and instead brought new and hilarious insight to the characters, storylines, and fairytales in general. It also related to the new audiences by making fun of musicals in a hilarious and unpredictable way. The sets were amazing, and were half constructed by the Rep. Those sets will go all the way to Broadway which is quite the acheivement. They also did amazing things with special effects including 3 different turntables which rotated in all different directions. It was truly amazing. The one down side: the actor playing Donkey had zero comedic timing. I know playing a part originated by Eddie Murphy is a daunting task, but this guy phoned in the whole thing. Overall, I can't remember the last time I had that much fun at a musical and can't wait to see it again once it's gone through it's final tweaks and cuts.

And here are a few side notes that I thought you all would enjoy:

1. On my way home from work a woman yelled out "Go Hawkeyes" when she spotted my Iowa hoodie. Gotta love that Iowa pride.

2. Also on my way home from work, two women were sitting at a table asking for donations for a battered woman's shelter. After I politely declined, one of them (who sounded either drunk or Australian) said, "Yeah, well you look like a battered woman." You know what, I'm tired and circles under my eyes happen from a lack of sleep and not "walking into a door" thank you very much.

3. (mom, don't read this one b/c it'll just get you worked up) I was going into the market to buy food for a party we had today. On my way in a man ran into me, almost knocking me over. Then he sprinted outside and was followed by two men in green aprons and white polo shirts. I started looking around the store to see if anyone else was noticing what was going on. Nobody had a clue. Eventually the two guys were pulling this insanly skinny guy back into view. He was struggling so hard that they started taking off his shirt because he was trying to get away so forcefully. Eventually the fatter one sat on the guy and got him to calm down. Then they picked him up and ushered him into the back offices of the store. And no one around me was watching. They just went about their day while I stared, open mouthed at the whole thing. The craziest part was how quiet it was. There weren't noises of a struggle or the yells of profanity into the air. Just three guys wrestling. It was wild. I've never seen anything like it. It's just my small town Iowa coming out.

4. And finally, my Mom once told me that she needs signs to help her make big decisions. And they have to be big. Small stuff will just pass her by. She needs something loud and in her face. Well, I was in a room today that had a bunch of posters from years past and I came across this play. If that isn't a sign, I don't know what is.

I miss you all like crazy. You're the Timbaland to my JT. Call often.